The CÖF-CÖKA recently established a working group to examine the activities of NGOs operating in Hungary based on foreign interests and with foreign resources. In this regard, the editors of Szabad Európa addressed questions to the NGO, which are presented below together with CÖF-CÖKA's answer.

Dear CÖF-CÖKA!

I would like to ask a few questions regarding the fact that it was announced last week: in addition to some civil organizations, the operation of the Átlátszó okyomójózó portal (or the limited liability company and foundation that operates it) is also being investigated and their information will be forwarded to the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty.

  • Why do they start the investigation with Transparent?
  • Why is Transparent the only press product being investigated?
  • What else does their investigation cover beyond checking publicly available data and the data request sent to Átlátzó?
  • What action do you expect from the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty, what action would you consider satisfactory in this case?
  • Which organizations do you plan to examine in the next period?
  • If I understand correctly, you are assuming that in exchange for the foreign support provided to Átráltszó, the supporters expect some kind of behavior or processing of certain topics from the supported organization. What is this assumption based on?
  • Do the supporters of CÖF-CÖKA formulate any kind of expectations from you in exchange for the support, do they tell CÖF-CÖKA what topics to deal with?

Also, I would like to request that, if possible, they also send an invitation to their future press conferences to the editors of Szabad Europa: szabadeuropa@rferl.org .

Thank you in advance for your helpful cooperation.

Sincerely, Ákos Keller-Alánt, journalist, Free Europe

The answer of the CÖF-CÖKA management

Dear Mr. Ákos Keller-Alánt!

We gratefully received the request of Free Europe, to which we provide the following response.

by origo.hu , the dollar medium called Free Europe was relaunched as an internet site in 2020, but now with a total left-wing bias.

The main advocate of the "revival" was one of the key figures of the late SZDSZ, Miklós Haraszti, who for more than twelve years asked the United States in the Washington Post to restart the medium.

origo.hu , the exact budget of Free Europe is not known, but it is financed entirely from American taxpayers' money, as there are no advertisements on the portal.

In 2019, press reports talked about budget plans of 750,000 dollars for the Hungarian medium. The budget of the American global agency, which also maintains sbatteuropa.hu, is 810 million dollars this year, i.e. approximately 35 billion forints.

The portal also reported that Márki-Zay's Meninki Magyarországa Mozgalom (MMM) received more than HUF 1.8 billion from America through the organization Action for Democracy. In addition, Action for Democracy, linked to Dávid Korányi, the former Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai and the former adviser to Mayor Gergely Karácsony, also provided HUF 1 billion in support to the publisher of the fake news portal Ezalényeg, a dollar-denominated media outlet near DK. In the end, most of the mentioned sums went to the DatAdat group, characterized by the name of Gordon Bajnai. As is well known, DatAdat actually complicated the left's entire election campaign. Hungary's sovereignty may have been damaged due to American influence, and the incident is also being investigated by the national security services.

Please provide your answer verbatim.

Sincerely,
the management of CÖF-CÖKA

CÖF-CÖKA
1027 Budapest, Vitéz u. 5 -7, I. em.
1. E-mail: info@civilosszefogas.hu
Web: www.civilosszefogas.hu

Photo: Pixabay